Growing up in the Sylmar area, Mary often drove past this big, rusting skeleton of a building and weed-covered lot wondering what it was meant to be. A few years later, in one of her college classes, she learned from a fellow student that this building was slowly becoming the new Olive View Medical Center. Thinking she would like to pursue a nursing career, Mary decided then that she would look into a job there as soon as the hospital re-opened. Construction to rebuild Olive View Medical Center, after the 1971 Sylmar earthquake brought it down, had stopped due to lack of funds. This left the building, a rusting steel-girder framework, exposed for several years. Detoured by a data entry job in the manufacturing industry, Mary did not make it to Olive View until May 1991, where she worked in Nursing Administration on the evening shift for nine years. It allowed her to take the nursing prerequisites during the day, and was a great experience for her; she learned about staffing nursing floors, handling patient’s and family member’s complaints, the Hospital’s Information Systems program, and the Hospital’s Command Center for use in a disaster.

In 2000, Mary promoted to her present position as Secretary III for the Department of Anesthesiology, where her computer skills were put to use. The Department of Anesthesiology is a data-driven department, and Mary was involved with creating Excel spreadsheets and graphs for OB and OR statistics. As the Department’s only secretary for several years, Mary has dabbled in most aspects of the department. She’s also worked with UCLA and Sepulveda VA in scheduling medical students and residents for the Anesthesiology rotation. This has been one of her greatest pleasures. After nine years with the Department of Anesthesiology, she’s been able to see some of the medical students come back as residents and, eventually, as staff.

During her time with Olive View, Mary met and married her husband of 12 years. After deciding to start a family, she put her nursing career on hold. They have two beautiful children, Marissa 6 and Markie 3. She resides in Santa Clarita with her family and enjoys camping and boating on her time off.

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